An ultrasound imaging system includes a transducer array that transmits an ultrasound beam into an examination field of view. As the beam traverses structure (e.g., of a sub-region of an object or subject) in the field of view, sub-portions of the beam are attenuated, scattered, and/or reflected off the structure, with some of the reflections (echoes) traversing back towards the transducer array. The transducer array receives echoes, which are processed to generate an image of the sub-portion of the object or subject. The image is visually displayed.
Ultrasound has been used in a wide range of medical and non-medical applications. Examples of such procedures include surgery, biopsy, therapy, etc. With surgery, e.g., ultrasound has been used to assist a clinician with navigating to a tissue region of interest. For this, with one approach, reference 3D imaging data (e.g., MR, CT, etc.) is acquired prior to the procedure for planning purposes. At the beginning of the procedure (which could be months later), 2D and/or 3D imaging data (e.g., US, MR, CT, etc.) is acquired and fused to the reference 3D imaging data. The newly acquired 2D and/or 3D imaging data shows changes that have occurred between the acquisition of the reference 3D image data and the beginning of the procedure.
Such changes can be related to the size and/or location of the tissue of interest, a presence of new tissue of interest, an absence of previously identified tissue of interest, etc. However, fusing the 2D and/or 3D imaging data with the reference 3D imaging data is a time-intensive task. As a consequence, such fusion generally has been performed only at the beginning of the procedure. Thereafter, e.g., during the procedure, currently acquired 2D and/or 3D imaging data is overlaid over the reference 3D imaging data. Unfortunately, overlaying the currently acquired 2D and/or 3D imaging data over the reference 3D imaging data has resulted in visual clutter and uncertainty, e.g., due to misalignment of the information in the imaging data sets.